THE RITUAL DIMENSION

The Ritual Dimension
Ritual is what believers DO! Rituals provide believers with a symbolic mode of communication designed to propel them out of ordinary experience and into extraordinary realities. 

· Rituals are often based on the myths contained in a given worldview. Believers feel called upon to do what their great leaders did.
Thus, Christians celebrate the ritual of the Last Supper (the Eucharist) just as Yeshua (Jesus) did 2,000 years ago. And in participating in this unique, myth-based ritual, a devout Christian is brought back into authentic Christian experience. See my article on The Eucharist
· Taken together, we might think of the Experiential, Mythic and Ritual dimensions as an inward turning force in religions. 

Profound life questions arise and call for answers in the experiential dimension. 

A charismatic leader provides answers to those questions expressed in great deeds and inspired teachings. In the mythic dimension, those words and deeds are described, usually in sacred texts but sometimes in oral tradition. 

For believers, the key events in the mythic dimension are acted out in rituals which, in turn, transform an ordinary experience into the uniquely extraordinary experience.
Through the ritual practices a person experiences kenosis (emptying out); and the plerosis (filling up).

Ritual Characteristics

SYMBOLIC PROCESS
Sign - something that is regularly or causally connected in experience with something else.
Disease . . . Symptoms
Dark clouds. . . Rain
Representational Symbols - ties things together that are distinct or different from each other: words, cross, menu. 

RITUAL
Ritual is a symbolic mode of communication.
· Ritual is a mode of religious expression that unites words and gestures to form a sacred drama.
· Rituals transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
· Ritual implies action or doing on the part of the believers.

PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF RITUALS IN RELIGION

Sacramental - ordinary transformed into extraordinary. Uses symbols to point to a spiritual reality.
Performative - doing something
Repetitive - ritual activities are repeated
Social - ritual provide social cohesion (act or state of sticking together); people do rituals together.